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Oxygenating & floating pond plants

Indicates plants native to the UK.

Indicates plants that attract the wild life.

Oxygenating pond plants (oxygenators) are an essential part of any pond ecosystem and perform a number of important functions that help maintain your pond in the best possible condition. They are so named as any foliage that grows naturally underwater will produce oxygen during the day and so help to oxygenate the water, which will benefit all pond life.

One of the key benefits of oxygenators is to help absorb any excess nutrients (mainly nitrogen and phosphorus) in the pond on which algae thrive, thereby depriving the algae of the nutrients it needs to thrive and helping to reduce and control it.

Apart from this oxygenators provide shade to help keep the water cooler (algae love warm water which is why it becomes a problem in Spring as the water warms up) and provide cover, food and egg-laying sites for amphibians and other pond life.

It is normal to recommend 2-3 oxygenators per sq. metre of pond surface, however our oxygenators, especially the bunches of bare root Hornwort and Willow moss are very generous compared to the tiny bunches that are standard throughout the industry so we would advise starting with 1-2 per sq. metre. Ideally submerged oxygenators should grow to take up 25-30% of the volume of the pond.